Batchelor: Senator White House

John Batchelor writes today on his blog:

Mr. Obama Hearts Congress

More Executive staff appointments the last days, from Greg Craig the Beltway mouthpiece to White House counself, to a trio of veteran Congressional aides, Pete Rouse, Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen to the West Wing, underline the clear pattern in the Obama transition that this is a congressional takeover of the executive branch. The separation between the powers is going down (right, from NYT November 4, the President-Elect and his advisers, Greg Craig, back to camera, Susan Rice, Anthony Lake, Scott Gration, Samantha Powers.)

Yes, there have been smatterings of Chicago ops. Valerie Jarrett of the Richie Daley machine is clearly a Chicago fixer now at the White House to deal with the lingering problems of the Springfield years, such as Tony Rezko and Rod Blagojevich, however she does not have a profound job in policy; and she is matched and perhaps watched by the Roveian understudy David Axelrod.

The big jobs are going to Hill rats such as Rahm Emanuel as CoS, and now his crony Peter Rouse, veteran of Tom Daschle’s Senate Majority/Minority office, and deputy Jim Messina, veteran of Max Baucus and Byron Dorgan staffs.

If there is a theme inside a theme, it is that Mr. Obama knows so very few people in Washington — and the truth is he knows no one; he is a commuter — that he is obliged to start his term by leasing the Democratic Senate as a staff and think tank.

Do all presidents look to Congress for staffs? No. Eisenhower trusted Sherman Adams of New Hampshire, who pulled in a variety of self-made men. Jack Kennedy trusted Harvard and his brother RFK, and at one point in the Vietnam debate in 1963 was surrounded by five professors, not one lawyer or governor or congressman. Johnson owned Congress, but he inherited the sour, hangdog arrogant Kennedy staff and the pest RFK and had to bring in his Texas flacks around the edges. Richard Nixon was all California and white-shoe lawyer conservatives. Jimmy Carter liked Georgia, whatever that meant. Ronald Reagan liked California and the Goldwater vets. George H.W. Bush liked the junior professionals in the Reagan era, and Bill Clinton brought in Arkansas and lots of smarty pants from progressive policy tanks.

There were exceptions in this lot, but not one of the presidents since the Cold War has trusted the Senate as far as the East Wing door. In truth, mostly they fought the Senate as a posse of cry baby millionaires always posing in a toga in their mind’s eye. Now we have change. Mr. Obama hearts the Senate. He resigns his Senate seat today, the highest office he ever aspired to before lightening struck on his road to Grand Jury trouble for Tony Rezko and he took the long-shot gamble to run for the presidency.

Now Mr. Obama is pulling in all the Senate power brokers through their surrogates. The Ted Kennedy connection is Caroline Kennedy, though there will be more. Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Byron Dorgan, John Kerry, James Webb, Debbie Stabenow, Carl Levin, Evan Bayh, Mark Warner, all potent players to please. Senate-chandelier fixture Joe Biden is ready to take command of everything on the days Mr. Obama is busy being cool for the opinion polls. And we can expect the long arm of Tom Daschle to show up in every office in the Executive.

This leaves the question of Mrs. Clinton and her California cronies Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. Mr. Obama will find a role for her, or he will keep trying to find a role for her. The First Article of the Constitution is stepping aside for the Second Article. This is change. The last time there was such Senate power in the White House was the Gilded Age.

Is this a bad thing? No. Lots of dukes, lots of squabbles, a general air of regal torpor, lots of bloviating, shape-shifting, aloof guests for MTP and This Week, and no one much in charge where the buck stops.

^{Below, U.S. Senate in chamber, 110th Congress, September 2007}